Australia Unemployment Rate Climbs To 5.4%

Australia Unemployment Rate Climbs To 5.4%

Australia's unemployment rate jumped to a seasonally adjusted 5.4 percent in September, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

That missed forecasts for 5.3 percent after showing 5.1 percent in August.

But the Australian economy added 14,500 jobs in September - blowing past forecasts for an increase of 5,000 jobs after shedding 8,800 jobs in the previous month.

Full-time employment was up 32,100 jobs in September following the upwardly revised gain of 800 in August. Part-time employment was down 17,700 following the downwardly revised loss of 9,900 in the previous month.

The male unemployment rate increased 0.3 points to 5.6 percent and the female unemployment rate increased 0.3 points to 5.3 percent.

The participation rate was 65.2 percent, topping expectations for 65.0 percent - which would have been unchanged from the previous month.

Unemployment increased 38,800 (6.2 percent) to 662,700. The number of persons looking for full-time work increased 13,200 to 483,800 and the number of persons looking for part-time work increased 25,700 to 178,900.

Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 7.6 million hours to 1,627.5 million hours.

Upon the release of the data, the Australian dollar gained against major currencies, trading near 1.2536 against the NZ dollar, 1.2555 versus the euro, 80.03 against the yen and 1.0252 versus the U.S. dollar.